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Thank to all my readers for getting me on the bestseller list by the second day of sales! I've already started the next book in the series. Take care.

Rae

Johnny arrived in San Francisco a month after
rescuing Kristen. David Kern the office
manager with the sexy voice, who always gave him his assignments, had a new job
for him. This one was in San Francisco,
so he’d get to visit the big city. The
one downside to living in the mountains with your parents and little brother
and sister, was the lack of opportunities for casual sex.

He didn’t have to report to the office until
Monday as the case wasn’t critical. So
Saturday night was party time. He was
young, hot, gay, and ready for some fucking. He planned to drink and hopefully have a little indiscriminate sex for
twenty-four hours and then sleep until Monday morning.

First he went to a bear bar just so he could say
he did, hey, he was a bear. None of the
men appealed to him so he drank a few beers and left. His next bar had a lot of dancing going on. He had some fun, made a few trips to the
backrooms to make out with some guys, but no one appealed to him enough to take
it further. He did have three or four
long island ice teas though, dancing was thirsty work.

Four bars later and Johnny finally saw a man that
intrigued him. Both his bear and his
cock took notice. He was slightly drunk,
his shifter metabolism was trying to keep up with the intake, but so far the
alcohol was winning. He ordered another
drink to maintain his buzz and also ordered a drink for the pretty man he plan
to fuck for the rest of the night.

The man was slender but Johnny could see the
muscles moving underneath his clothes, he was strong. His hair was many different shades of blonde
that hung long just past his collar. Currently he was laughing with the man on his left. Johnny wasn’t worried because the other man
was obviously with someone. Johnny
walked over to him and caught his eye.

“Hi, I bought you a drink,” said Johnny.

David Kern looked up at the young handsome man
handing him his favorite drink. He had
come out tonight with friends, they had planned to hook him up with a friend
and it hadn’t worked out. Maybe fate was
stepping in with a better piece of candy. It had been three years since he had broken up with Michael and he’d
been ready for the past eight months or so to meet someone new. He hadn’t met Mr. Right, so he’d been
settling for a succession of Mr. Right Nows. This handsome hunk with long black hair was younger than he usually hit
on. Still this guy was hitting on him,
and he was really, really hot.

“Well thank you, handsome. Have you been here long?” David asked taking
a sip of the drink.

“I’ve been to a lot of different bars tonight
hoping to find some fun. Until I saw
you, no one appealed to my inner beast. And even though I bought you that drink, I’m hoping you really want to
leave…with me,” Johnny said boldly.

David laughed, then he noticed the heat in the
young man’s eyes. “Don’t you think we
should at least introduce ourselves?”

“Later,”
Johnny growled, tired of waiting he leaned over and kissed the man. David wished he didn’t have such a horrible
head cold. He wanted to take in this
lovely man’s scent. Well, maybe in the
morning.

Excerpt:

“Are you Craig?” the guy said.

“Yes, do you need something?”

“Yeah, I heard you can increase the size of a shifter’s animal. I’m a lion and could really use your help.”

“I don’t do that for just anyone.
So come on down to my mom’s office and we’ll talk. You can explain to my mom and me why you want
a bigger lion. Other than the obvious of
course,” he said.

The guy was about five ten and couldn’t weigh more than one sixty. He had the muscular trim body of a guy that
worked out but he didn’t have very much bulk.
His lion would be very small so he could understand why the guy might
want a larger one. But he wanted to make
sure he wouldn’t be using his larger lion in a negative way. They had run across a shifter that had become
mentally twisted due to his smaller animal size.

“Leo Lauva and no jokes please, it’s a family name. The eldest son has always been named Leo in
my family,” he explained.

“Alright, Leo, have a seat and tell us why you need a larger lion,” she
asked as she gestured to a sitting area on the far side of her office.

After sitting, he leaned over resting his elbows on his knees. “Our pride owns a lot of land. Control of that land has always rested with
the Rex, the head of the pride, the strongest lion. That’s always been someone in our line. We run a wildlife park on a portion of the
land. You may have heard of it, it’s
called the ‘Out of Africa Wildlife Park’, in Arizona. We have forty-five species of mammals as well
as birds and reptiles. What’s important
is that amongst the mammals, fourteen are shifter species. So shifters can also vacation there and have
a chance to run free.”

Craig and his mother were amazed, a place where shifters were protected
and could run free, right under the noses of humans and not worry about being
exposed.

“All of our staff are pride members.
But some members of the pride don’t want to work at the park. That’s fine, we don’t want to force
anyone. However, about nine-months ago
we were approached by an energy company.
I’m not sure whether it’s natural gas, oil, or uranium they were after
but they want the mineral rights. It
would mean a lot of money would pour into the coffers but the only viable
method they could use is fracking due to the hardness of the rocks in the
area. And that’s against our
environmental stand. Dad turned them
down and we thought that was that. But
now, one of the males is making noises about challenging for head of the
pride. He’s a part of the faction that
wants to shut down the park, sit on their asses and let the energy company take
what they want. So long as they’re
getting paid, they don’t care what happens,” he explained.

“And would your father be able to meet this challenge?” asked Ingrid.

“That’s the problem. It’s not
known yet, but my father is dead. We
were doing a tour of the more remote areas of the property. I’d gotten out and shifted, I wanted to stretch
my legs. My dad left me and drove off
toward the next fence line. Right after
I finished undressing and shifted I smelled the explosives, but it was too late
for my dad. The truck blew up before I
could get there and warn him.” Leo
stopped talking and rubbed his hands over his face. Both Craig and his mother said nothing, they
could see he was struggling with some strong emotions. It was a couple of minutes before he could go
on.

“I take after my mother’s side of the family. I’m small.
My dad was a big man, nearly seven foot and he carried a lot of
bulk. No one would have challenged him
because challenges are fought shifted. Xerxes
is six two and weighs about three hundred pounds. I’m good but I can’t beat him. As soon as the pride realizes that my
father’s dead, which will happen at the next pride meeting in two weeks, I’ll
claim his place. I can expect to be
challenged and I’ll be lucky to live. Xerxes
won’t challenge me right off. He’ll have
others challenge me first to wear me down so he has an easy win. If by chance one of the others beats me,
he’ll just challenge them and they know it.
That’s why I need a full sized lion.
I need to defend my pride. I also
need to find those responsible for my father’s death and get justice for him. Will you help?” he asked looking at them
both.

“How did you find out about me?
I’ve been keeping it pretty low key,” Craig explained.

“One of my sister’s friends was kidnapped by that maniac. She’s a lion too. The agency guys told her about it in case she
wanted to come see you. They thought if
she had a bigger form when shifted, she’d feel stronger, that it would help her
during the tough times. I understand
she’s still having nightmares. Anyway,
she and my sister are good friends and she’s aware of the problems in our
pride, so she told me in confidence. She
didn’t even tell my sister. She also
doesn’t know my father is dead. She
wanted me to have it because it’s pretty much a given that at some time in the
future I’ll be taking over the pride and I’ll be challenged.”

Craig looked over at his mom, “What do you think?”

Ingrid stood and pulled the strings at her throat, loosening them enough
for her dress to fall to the floor. She
quickly shifted and then took the two steps necessary to put her nose right up
against Leo. After sniffing him all over
she shifted back and put her dress back on.

“First, have this young lioness come to us. She needs a soul healing it will help with
the nightmares. As to the rest, yes, you
should help him,” she said.

Craig stood and removed his own clothing. He tossed his clothes on the chair behind him
and kicked off his shoes. He quickly
shifted to his own bear, there was barely enough room. Luckily because they had built their offices
and clinic in a warehouse, the ceilings were high. Craig also sniffed at Leo, then he shifted
back to human. “Give me your hand.”

Leo held out his hand right away.
Craig took Leo’s hand in his own and partially shifting his opposite
hand, he made a cut in Leo’s palm and then his own. As he blended their blood, he started
chanting. His mother joined in the
chant. When they were finished he
separated their hands and the cuts had been healed. There wasn’t even any dried blood.

“You’ll find your shifter senses growing stronger over the next few
days. Your lion will be full sized
almost immediately, well before your pride meeting. This is a gift from the bear. You’ll also have your lion’s senses in your
human form within a few hours, this is a gift from the wolf. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’ll always be able to
find you. We’ll be connected to each
other through our brother bond for the rest of our lives. So don’t screw up and turn into a bad guy
okay,” he said pulling his shirt over his head.
Sitting down he leaned over to grab his shoes and put them on.

Leo didn’t know what to say. He
had expected a big ritual, with a sweat lodge and days of chanting and
purging. He just had all his
preconceived notions kicked in the pants.
This bear was the real deal, and he’d just shared some of his magic.

“Would you mind shifting to your lion?” Ingrid asked. “I’d like to get an idea of how long it
takes. By seeing your size now I’ll be
able to tell.”

Perfectly willing to do anything they asked, Leo kicked off his own
shoes and started to strip. Moments
later they had a large lion standing in between them. He wasn’t full sized, but he was at lease a
hundred pounds heavier than his human form.
He’d be full sized within an hour or so.

Leo smelled the most delicious scent.
He couldn’t help himself, he went to where Craig was sitting and took a
deep sniff of his hands. Mate.
Craig had been recently in contact with his mate! The goddess had truly blessed this trip. Shifting back he blurted out his
question. “Who have you touched
recently? My mate, the scent on your
hands is my mate.”

Craig looked shocked and then he started laughing, “I hope you’re gay.”

“Yes, I am. Does it matter?”

Closing the door behind him, Felix sighed when seeing his room
again. That was another thing he had
against the FBI team that had beaten him to town. They’d taken the last four rooms at the only
motel in town so he was stuck in this B&B twenty miles away with frou-frou
flowered wall paper, chintz covered bedspread and wicker furniture. He didn’t care if he was a gay man, he could
feel his masculinity leaking out of his pores every time he stepped in the
room. Floral wallpaper and chintz were
fine; it was just the proliferation of those things along with the predominant
color of various shades of pink. He was
a jaguar shifter, jaguars liked to blend into their surroundings and become
invisible. They could remain immobile
for long periods of time awaiting their prey to come to them. There was no way he could blend into this room.

Letting out another long sigh, he walked over to the white wicker
armchairs in front of the window overlooking the back garden of the
B&B. He could deal with the
room. The truth was he was depressed
over not getting here sooner to save Molly O’Brian. She’d been hunted and killed. A wolf shifter from Tennessee and a college freshman
away from home and her pack for the first time in her life. Her life over before it began. Dropping his leather jacket on one of the
chairs, he pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket and dialed his brother
Oscar as he sat in the second chair, once again surprised that it actually held
his weight.

“Good afternoon, Panthera Agency, this is David speaking, how may I help
you?”

“Hey, David, I’m checking in. Is
Oscar around?”

“Yeah, but he’s on the other line right now with Harris from the FBI
shifter team. I’ll put you through as
soon as he hangs up. So, since we have a
minute, I just wanted to remind you to email your daily report. I haven’t gotten one from you since you got
there.”

“Okay, okay. You know how much I
hate reporting nothing.”

“See, this is why I nag. You
always say you have nothing and when I get the report, there’s always
something.”

“I know we’re supposed to wait for our true mate. I haven’t told Michael about our group and
never can, I understand that. But I
really love him Felix. Anyway his
birthday is coming up so I’m working on a surprise for him. He really wants to paint his apartment and he
has to go out of town at the end of the week. He’s already got the colors picked out so I’m good there. I figure I can get the place done before he
gets back,” explained David.

“You guys make a great couple. Personally I don’t think you should limit yourself to guys from our
group. Love is the important thing. If you and Michael get that forever love then
it doesn’t matter that he’s not one of us. He hasn’t called you on keeping things from him? You’re not telling him where you are when you
go for a run?” asked Felix using euphemisms because this was an open line. They always had to be careful about people
finding out about them.

“It hasn’t come up yet. He’s
still so wrapped up with his residency that I do my running when he’s on
duty. And with the crazy hours we keep
it’s always easy to find some time for a run. I’m not worried about that. Oscar’s off the line so I’ll transfer you and thanks for listening friend.”

“Sure thing David, keep me posted and since it looks as if I’ll be home
in a couple of days, I’ll make the supreme friendship sacrifice and help you
paint Michael’s apartment,” Felix adds before the transfer goes through.

“Felix, I’ve got some good news for you. I just got off the phone with Harris. He’s going to pull the FBI team on your case and send in his special
team.”

“That would be great news except for two things. One, the SAC on this team plays for our team
and he’s going to be pissed when he’s replaced. And two…I’m not positive butIthinkhe’smytruemate,” he rushed out.

Oscar brought his feet down from his desk and stood. “Did you just say what I thought you just
said? You think he’s your true mate? How? I
didn’t think you’d gotten that close to him.”

Felix knew Oscar was referring to the fact that of the three types of
shifters, cat shifters had almost no shifter abilities in their human
form. Their sense of smell, sight and
their physical strength were all at a normal human level. The wolf shifters kept all of their shifter
strengths as human and the bears, well they were somewhere in between on the
senses but always magical in some way or another.

“I couldn’t get on scene at first because they have it taped off and
watched. The weather has been clear for
the last three days but it’s supposed to start snowing later tonight. So last night I took a little run and came in
from behind them. I wanted to track her
back to where they released her for the hunt if I could. Come up with some evidence that way. I got a strong sense at the scene.”

“Are you sure it was him and not one of the others? Or maybe someone passing through?” Oscar
wanted to know.

“Nope, it’s him and he’s a total Sylvester,” explained Felix using their
code word for a cat shifter. Bear
shifters were referred to as Yogi and wolf shifters were Huckleberry Hounds,
the brothers had come up with their own code words when they were kids watching
Saturday morning cartoons during the time their parents taught them about the
need for keeping their identities secret.

“Man, mom is going to be in seventh heaven. Two sons and a cousin finding love in less
than three months. You couldn’t put this
off a little longer? Are you sure? She’s going to start in on the rest of us
now. Thanks, a hell of a lot, bro.”

“Well, I’m not too thrilled about this either. I like playing the field. I’m not ready to settle down. And he’s in the freakin’ FBI. How can that work for us?” Felix gets up to pace. This conversation is not going down the road
he’d intended. Unfortunately Special Agent
Singh kept intruding on his thoughts.

“Oscar, let me worry about this later. For now I may have a teeny tiny lead. David’s busting my chops for reports so I’m going to pull out my laptop
and get it all together, encrypt the file and send it over. I’m only an hour ahead so you may actually
still be in the office when I send it.”

“Okay I’ll do that. Hey, I heard
from Brody, he’s going to be picking up Cody and Remy tomorrow. It seems the shaman they called is kick-ass
and Cody’s doing a lot better.”

“Oh man, that is some really good news. Give everyone my love and I’ll keep in touch,” said Felix.

“Okay, I will. Be careful out
there, especially if you and this Sylvester get together,” said Oscar.

When he
got the door all the way open he was shocked at what he saw. He couldn’t see the man’s face so he didn’t
know if it was Cody, but he cringed at what he did see. The man was naked, bent over the end of a
thin bed at the hip, his arms stretched up over his head, and his legs spread,
resting on the floor near the bottom corners. He had chains linked to shackles on his neck, wrists, waist, and
ankles. He had lash marks on his back,
buttocks, and thighs.

Even as
Felix stood there in the doorway shocked at what he was seeing, he saw the man
struggle against his restraints. The
rattling of the chains brought him out of his stupor and he rushed forward.

“Don’t
be afraid, I’m here to rescue you,” said Felix as he approached the bed, “I’ll
have these chains unlocked in a sec.” He
wanted to touch the man’s shoulder to let him know things would be okay but was
afraid to cause him any further pain.

Cody
heard what the man was saying and he could hardly believe it. He was trying to hold still as the affects of
the paralytic poison that Chaz kept injecting him with wore off. He felt as if his skin was crawling with
ants. As glad as he was to be rescued,
he almost wished this guy hadn’t shown up. Furthermore, just as soon as he could speak coherently, he would tell
this guy that Chaz was his to kill.

He knew
Chaz wouldn’t be back tonight, and within an hour, he’d be able to shift. He was looking forward to getting some
revenge on that asshole.

It took
less than five minutes for Felix to unlock all of the shackles. When he helped the man up onto the bed, he
saw that it was Cody as he had guessed.

“Cody
am I ever glad we found you. Your
brother has been really worried about you. Lucky for you both, he met his mate earlier in the evening,” Felix
recognized Cody’s symptoms because they were the same as Brody’s symptoms had
been. He pulled a flask out of his pack
and had Cody swallow some brandy laced with medicines given to them by the bear
doctor. The brandy acted as a counter
agent to the poison.

“Cody,
do you think you could shift?” he asked.

Cody
looked into Felix’s eyes, “Not…yet…in a bit,” he whispered.

“There
are at least four more people in a room at the end of the hall, maybe six. Are you going to be okay for a couple of
minutes? Oscar and Markus, my two
brothers have Chaz under guard by now. He won’t ever hurt you again,” Felix hurriedly added when he saw the
panic in Cody’s eyes.

“Don’t
tell,” said Cody in a stronger voice.

Felix
didn’t have to ask what it was Cody wanted kept secret. He had no problem with promising his
silence. He stayed another ten minutes
telling Cody how their brothers had met and how Arturo and Brody were now
mated. He filled Cody in on his
brother’s condition, plus how they had found him, while he waited to make sure
Cody was breathing steadily and regaining control of his body.

“Go,
help the others,” said Cody after awhile, “I’ll be okay now. I’m going to shift and take a quick
shower. Then I need to scrounge up some
clothes or keep my fur.”

“No
worries, we’ve got some extra sweats you can borrow,” said Felix, “I’ll be back
in a few.”

Felix
left the room and headed down to the end of the hall.

At the
other end of the house, Markus and Oscar were stalking their prey. They found him in a large living room
watching a video. He was sitting
sprawled over the couch as he faced the screen. There was a glazed look in his eyes as he lay back with his hands
between his legs.

They
couldn’t see the screen but judging from his posture and what he was doing, he
was probably watching some porno flick. Markus slowly inched across the carpet in the start-stop crouch of a
stalking cat. He eyes never left the
target as he made his way through the room. Oscar stood in the doorway, looking around for weapons and any other
hazards that might be nearby. Markus had
reached the front of the couch, just a couple of feet from his prey when Oscar
spoke up.

“I
don’t think he likes you very much so you should probably avoid splattering
your spunk all over him,” said Oscar.

Chaz
had thrown back his head and had picked up the speed of his strokes. At the sound of a voice, he turned his head.

“Huh, what—”
he mumbled looking around. Just then,
Markus let out a low growly howl and the man looked down and saw him. He froze in terror and immediately lost his
erection. He made a startled movement
when Oscar took a couple of steps into the room and then froze again when
Markus made a slight movement toward him.

Oscar
walked around the back of the couch. He
wasted no time as he clipped the man behind the ear with the side of his hand
and knocked him unconscious. It only
took a few moments to tie the guy up with plastic cable ties that he had ready
in his back pocket. While he was careful
not to cut off his circulation, he also wasn’t very concerned with being gentle
as he remembered the suffering of his brother’s mate. He didn’t bother tucking and zipping, he
wasn’t going near that guys junk with a ten-foot pole.

Neither
he nor Markus had paid any attention to the video on the screen, now that they
had secured their objective, Markus shifted and reached for the pack holding
his clothes. His back was to the screen
and he wondered why Oscar wasn’t handing over his clothes. He looked into his face and saw the anger
there.

Turning
around, Marcus looked at the screen and was shocked at what he saw there. It seemed Mr. Spellman was providing the
evidence needed to convict him of his crimes. The video showed him in a room with several men tied up in various
positions, and Chaz Spellman walking from man to man, viciously tormenting
them. He was naked and they could see by
the evidence between his legs that he was turned on by his actions.

Markus
reached over and turned off the television, then walked over and found the
video player, stopped that too and ejected the disc. Turning to his brother he said, “If he recorded
once, there are likely other recordings,” he said.

“Put on your clothes and
then a pair of gloves. You should
probably put the disc back in unless Cody is on it. It will be good evidence for the cops. Don’t forget to wipe your fingerprints off the
TV and DVR,” he said as he walked over to a cabinet and started searching. He agreed with Markus’s assessment, where
there was one, there would be more. Luckily, the cabinet was unlocked. They would prefer not to leave too much evidence that they had been on
the premises. They were being careful
not to leave any trace evidence. The
police would know someone was there—no way to avoid that. They just wanted to make sure the trail of
questions didn’t lead back to them.

Arturo Vasquez sat at the corner table in the back of the bar he’d
found in the Castro District of San Francisco. He was still nursing his first beer as he switched his attention from
the bodies gyrating on the dance floor and the hot blond bartender. Man
I need to get laid he thought. At
least the job he came into town to take care of had ended happily. Which
is why I’m here, hoping for a quick pick-up instead of sleeping back in my
room. Markus and Marianna were fine,
they didn’t need him.

He looked over at the bartender again. I’m so tired of losing myself in
strangers, I want my mate. But damn that man is fine, and I really need to get
laid tonight. My balls are going to turn
blue if I go on this way much longer. He hadn’t been cruising the bars in some
time. Work and his general lack of
interest had kept him celibate. The
bartender was the first man to peak his interest in some time. The longer he looked, the tighter his jeans
felt. Even his jaguar was scratching and
chuffing within him. Well no guts no glory. He paused to
finish the drink he had. He got up from
his table and walked over to the bar, snagging the stool on the end. He waited for the bartender to come down to
his end.

As he waited he enjoyed the better view. Must be
six foot, and one seventy or one eighty. All of it lean delicious muscle from what I
can see. That hair, he must have ten
different shades of blond in that hair, and those eyes. They seem to change
color with the light, sometimes green and sometimes golden. Too bad the guy next to me is wearing such
strong cologne, someone should tell him less more, because my jaguar would like
to get a sniff of the bartender.

***

Brody Cartwright was trying to pay attention to his job when the Latin
hard body from the corner decided to come over to the bar. All
that smooth tan skin, golden brown eyes and wavy dark brown almost black hair,
ooh boy I’m in trouble now. I have to
pay attention or I’m not going to find out what happened to Cody. No time for fooling around with the
tourists. But man I want to. He walked over to the end of the bar. “What can I get you?” he asked leaning over
without being able to help himself.

Each of them took in a deep breath, soaking in the other’s scent. All at once their eyes flew open, staring at
each other in surprise. They leaned into
each other, pulled together by a force stronger than them both. They began sharing a kiss, only when the
whistles and cat-calls penetrated did they stop. Each of them was halfway over the bar when
they broke it off. Arturo regained his
power of speech first. “I’ll have some
more of that…later. For the moment
though I’ll take a beer, whatever you have on draft, and a shot of tequila.”